I know he worked hard to keep the wolves safe but Denali’s wolves are dying at the hands of trappers who set their traps right outside the park. Since wolves don’t understand park boundaries they are often trapped and killed. Denali’s wolves are particularly vulnerable because they are habituated to people.

One horrific incident involved an alpha female who was stuck for almost two weeks in a leg hold trap and snare. Her frantic family stayed close to her but of course could not help her. Her teeth were broken from trying to eat rocks. Who are these heartless people who have no respect for animal life that would let a wolf to sit in a leghold for two weeks? It makes me sick to think of it. Apparently a small group of trappers are wrecking havoc on the wolves of Denali.

It was hoped the Alaska Board of Game would address the plight of Denali’s wolves by extending their protections and increasing the buffer zones around the park. Instead they opened the north-eastern border of Denali to wolf trapping, even though Alaskans sent thousands of letters in support of wolves.

A letter to the editor in the Juneau Empire, from a concerned citizen, sums up the sad situation for Denali’s wolves and other wildlife.

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State hypocritical in allowing Denali wildlife to be killed

Juneau Empire

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

It was recently reported that the Alaska Board of Game made the decision to open the buffer zones to the northeast of Denali National Park to wolf trapping. This decision came about in spite of wide public support from Alaskans to maintain and even increase protection for Denali’s wolves.

Furthermore, the National Park Service also wished to maintain the current level of protection as the wolf population has declined to roughly 70 wolves within the park.

This decision, along with many other decisions by the Board of Game, contradicts what is stated in the Alaska Constitution that wildlife belongs to all Alaskans not just to hunters and trappers.

Apparently, the desires of three to four recreational trappers outweigh the desires of all other Alaskans, essentially making wildlife viewers, scientists, photographers, tourists, business and others into second-class citizens without any voices of representation on the current Board of Game.

Quoting from the article – “When we created buffer zones, we had been essentially implementing federal management for federal interests on state land,” said board member Teresa Albaugh, who voted to open the land for trapping. “The business of those lands is the business of the federal government.”

Exactly. As such, the National Park Service should take a far more aggressive stance toward the state when state actions threaten either or both of the two mandates of the National Park Service – protecting the resource and providing access and experience for park visitors.

Since NPS has federal jurisdiction over its lands, it should re-evaluate its current hunting and trapping bag limits within Denali’s Preserve and New Park Additions (and in other parks) and lower them assuming this does not conflict with ANILCA. Additionally, other subjects such as snow machining and other areas of cooperation with the state should be re-evaluated as well and perhaps overturned.

No predator control of either bears or wolves or the baiting of either for hunting or trapping purposes should be allowed on federal lands whether under NPS or other federal agency jurisdiction.

Additionally, perhaps now is the time for the businesses in the Alaska tourism industry – such as Princess, Aramark, Holland America and many other local businesses in the Glitter Gulch area outside Denali – to re-evaluate and consider cancelling their advertising and promotion of these same area trappers’s tourism-related businesses.

The financial targeting of tourists in the summer and then the targeting and killing of Denali’s wildlife as it travels outside the park in the winter is blatantly hypocritical and is ethically and biologically destructive to Denali.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Wolf 253, the beloved Yellowstone Druid wolf named Limpy, who was shot and killed in March 08, on the very day ESA protections were lifted for the gray wolf, by the then Bush Administration.